15 Ultimate Trips of a Lifetime

Choosing the perfect vacation is a lot like dress shopping. The little black dresses of travel are always great, but every once in a while, you need to indulge in a little couture. We rounded up incredible dream adventures that are transformative and inspiring.

The Great Wall to Gorky Park: Beijing to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railroad

The Great Wall to Gorky Park: Beijing to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railroad

Majestic landscapes scroll by cinematically as you sip champagne in the dining car. You fall asleep to the gentle rocking of your cabin and awake to sunrise coffee over an amber-hued steppe. This is clearly what they meant when they said it’s the journey, not the destination, that counts. This particular journey starts in Beijing, where you’ll marvel at the sprawling Forbidden City and the Great Wall before boarding a train that takes you through the mysterious Gobi Desert, the epic Mongolian Alps, and the Siberian splendor of Lake Baikal. You’ll disembark in Moscow to explore the bling-a-minute presence of gold-plated Lamborghinis, bottle service clubs, and tasting menus alongside a dramatic past of tsar palaces, Soviet bunkers, and dreamlike Gorky Park.

The Real Happiest Place on Earth: Bhutan

The Real Happiest Place on Earth: Bhutan

Good ol’ Walt may have claimed the Happiest Place on Earth mantle for Disneyland, but its true soul is in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. The country’s leaders have even arranged their development priorities around GNH (gross national happiness), balancing economic gains with the well-being of the people. You’ll feel that sense of contentment at Amankora, a series of five ultra-luxe lodges that form a circuit, from the rammed-earth walls of the contemporary rustic Paro to the whitewashed stone buildings in the blue pine forests of Thimphu to sixteenth-century monastic views at Gangtey. You’ll do yoga while overlooking rice paddies, visit an eighth-century monastery clinging to a 9,678-foot cliff, shop in rambling ancient markets, and hike past yak herders and Buddhist monks through dramatic mountain passes and lush valleys.